A Study On The Mathematical Divergent Thinking Ability Of High School Students And Its Correlation With Academic Performance

In the rapidly developing contemporary society,innovation is getting more and more attention,and the General High School Mathematics Curriculum Standards（2017 edition）also emphasizes the importance of cultivating students’ innovative ability.In order to improve students’ innovation ability,we can start from cultivating students’ divergent thinking.In order to grasp the current situation of mathematical divergent thinking ability of high school students,the correlation between each characteristic of mathematical divergent thinking of high school students,the correlation between mathematical divergent thinking and mathematical academic achievement,and the variability of mathematical divergent thinking of students in different class grades and academic levels,this study uses the divergent processing part of Guilford’s three-dimensional theory of intellectual structure as the theoretical basis to develop a mathematical divergent thinking ability test for high school students thinking ability of high school students,and implemented questionnaires in five key classes and five general classes in a key high school in a district of Ningbo City,Zhejiang Province,and randomly selected five students for interviews.The following conclusions were obtained from the study.（1）The development of senior students’ mathematical divergent thinking is uneven,with a large number of students whose mathematical divergent thinking,fluency,and adaptability are at the middle level and a large number of students whose uniqueness is at the low level.（2）The correlation between the two characteristics of mathematical divergent thinking was significantly positive,with the correlation between fluency and uniqueness being stronger.（3）There was no significant difference between the students in the key classes and the students in the regular classes in terms of their divergent thinking in mathematics.（4）The correlation between divergent thinking in mathematics and academic achievement in mathematics was significant and positive,with variability having the greatest impact on academic achievement in mathematics.（5）There was no correlation between mathematical divergent thinking and fluctuations in mathematics academic performance,and weak or no correlation between mathematical divergent thinking,fluency,adaptability,uniqueness,and fluctuations in mathematics academic performance.（6）The variability of students’ divergent thinking varied by academic level,and there were significant differences between the two in fluency and uniqueness.In terms of fluency,there was a significant difference between students with upper academic level in mathematics and students with intermediate and lower academic level in mathematics,and there was no significant difference between students with intermediate and lower academic level in mathematics.Based on the above findings and combined with literature,some suggestions are given to improve students’ divergent thinking.